THE NASSAU GUARDIAN DAMNS THE PLP WITH FAINT PRAISE

We republish the editorial of The Nassau Guardian of 27 June 2024:

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is already gearing up for the next election, and at the moment, it seems confident the Davis administration can gain a second term in office.

On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis directed PLPs to “ready the ship” and prepare for the 2026 general election during a rally-style meeting in Mount Moriah in New Providence.

“When a hurricane is coming there are three stages they talk about,” said Davis at the regional PLP meeting at C.W. Sawyer Primary School in Yellow Elder Gardens.

“They talk about the watch, they talk about the alert and then the warning. Now this is the watch period.

“When I come back here, we’ll start talking about the alert. Right now we are talking the watch period. So, in the watch period it’s time to ready the ship.

“PLPs, it’s time to ready the ship. Get our branches in gear.”

Tall Pines MP Dr. Michael Darville, who is also the minister of health, told the crowd to prepare for a political battle.

“Things are heating up,” Darville said.

“It’s heating up all over the country and the word on the street is the PLP is on the road to win two straight. You hear that? That’s what I’m hearing out there. That’s what I’m hearing in Tall Pines.

What is interesting, is that for all the poor, questionable decisions and conflicting statements this administration has made, nothing seems to have quite stuck to the party as yet that seems to have discounted it from doing what has not been done since 1997.

One part of it could be that there has been no serious test of Davis’ leadership so far – no hurricanes, no pandemic, no economy in free fall.

A part of it could be a weak opposition.

The Free National Movement (FNM) has spent nearly the last three years in disarray, plagued by infighting, and its communications apparatus is poor.

High crime is certainly an issue that hasn’t gone away, with an alarming spike in murders earlier in the year.

There was the matter of the $192,000 BMW that was bought for the prime minister, but the FNM couldn’t capitalize on it.

There is the persistent high cost of living that the government has taken no real measures to address.

There were the public fights with grocers and pharmacists and gas retailers.

There is the heavy-handedness of the Ministry of Finance and several failings at the Department of Inland Revenue that is impacting the ease of doing business and frustrating many employers.

There was the distasteful reallocation of $25,000 initially earmarked for the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to fund a high-end memorial for the late Obie Wilchcombe at Baha Mar last year.

There is also the controversial energy reform plan the government is seeking to implement that the FNM hasn’t been able to seize and weaponize.

There is also a shameful lack of tangible progress by the Disaster Risk Management Authority with regard to the recovery from Hurricane Dorian on Abaco and Grand Bahama.

And there is also the government’s excessive travel.

But the FNM can’t seem to get any mileage out of it.

The media have done a far better job critiquing the missteps of the Davis administration than the FNM.

Even coming out of its recent convention, the party doesn’t appear reinvigorated at fulsomely engaged in the fight.

Other than theatrics in the House of Assembly, which has also been ineffective, there doesn’t seem to be any “there” there.

FNM Leader Michael Pintard squandered a golden opportunity to rebrand the FNM in his image when he gave his acceptance speech at the party’s June 1 convention with an overlong and unfocused diatribe.

In 2002, Perry Christie convinced the majority of voters that the PLP deserved a second chance.

In 2007, Hubert Ingraham came to power after Christie’s middling performance.

Christie got back in office in 2012 after Ingraham angered the public with the New Providence Road Project and the sale of a majority stake in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.

In 2017, just about everyone had their fill of Christie and Dr. Hubert Minnis rose to power.

After Minnis’ disastrous term, the public gave Davis a chance.

There doesn’t seem to be that previous clear sense for an appetite for change this time around; at least not at this stage.

However, two years is nearly a lifetime in politics.

The PLP could be counting its chickens before they hatch and its days in office could still be numbered.